Pictures above ( Me Shane and Kelly in the night train on the way to Amsterdam, this was before the guys in front of us puked all over themselves) (The group in front of the I AMsterdam sign, it was sooo cold!)
So I have not updated my blog in quite some time so I definitely think I need to let everyone know what has been going on in my life overseas. A few weeks ago my friends, Eric and I all went to Amsterdam from November 20-23rd, it was quite an experience to say the least. First off we took a night train to Amsterdam, which was about 10 hours away. We got on the train and I sat next to my friend Shane and we were trying really hard to fall asleep, but lucky for us there were 2, I would say about 16 year old German boys sitting in front of us, and they were drinking some vodka very heavily and listening to loud music. After about 2 or 3 hours into the trip I just see out of the corner of my eye one of them puking all over himself! I was totally disgusted and got up and moved down to the train and sat by some other friends of mine for a bit. They sat there for a while and one was just covered in his own puke with his head in a sweatshirt, as if trying to hide his shame. I finally go back to my seat and after about another hour I am just getting to sleep and I hear the kid puke AGAIN! I couldn't believe it, Shane and I were just laughing behind them, thinking thats what they get for getting drunk on a night train, smart idea right?
Picture of (Eric and Kelly standing next to a tiny car in Amsterdam...we saw a ton of cars like this...where did they come from??) (So many bikes in Amsterdam, the had bikes everywhere! People did bike tours around the city a lot) (Me in some huge clogs...hahah)
So we finally arrive in Amsterdam around 9 AM in Amsterdam and I had gotten maybe 3 hours of sleep. We began the day by getting all of our things in the hostel and starting some sight seeing. If anyone doesn't know, Amsterdam is known for having Marijuana and prostitution legalized, so there are some strange characters in Amsterdam.
(Picture of me in front of the canals in Amsterdam) (The Heineken Brewery where we went for the "Heineken Experience") (Me and Kelly in a huge wooden clog/Dutch shoe) (Me, Kelly, and Emma with Darth Vader in the main square, hahah they would stand out there and you have to pay to take a picture with them)
When we were sight seeing the city was actually a cool city, but pretty dirty by my standards because looking into the canals right away I could see a ton of trash in them and the color of the water was almost black. Everywhere we went smelled like weed too. Amsterdam had some really cool buildings and architecture. Such as a lot of the buildings were purposefully slanted forward because all the houses are so close together that you can't get any furniture through the actual house, so they have a pully system to get them through the windows, but if they were smart wouldn't they have just made the pully stick out farther so they wouldn't have to actually build the houses forward just to get things inside? Another strange thing was the Red Light District, we went there at night to check it out, and there are just women everywhere standing in windows trying to lure men in and pleasure them for money. We found out that it is illegal to take pictures of any of the women in the Red Light District, and if anyone catches you snapping a picture the women have cups of urine by the window to through at you, they will break your camera, or throw it into one of the canals; before the end of the trip I actually snapped a quick picture of one of the red light girls, I think she might have seen my do it, but nothing happened.
(The pictures below are ...the first of Ginny in the square in Amsterdam walking through a huge crowd of pidgeons) (The next of our first day in Amsterdam outside of our hostel) (And the I AMsterdam sign at night when it was snowing.)
Another thing about Amsterdam was that it was so expensive!! I never had expected it to be so bad, but the first night Eric got into Amsterdam we went out for a beer at a pub and Eric ordered a Guinness and the bartender said it was 7 Euros!!! Which equals about $9 for one glass of beer! Eric strangely had two glasses and then decided to call it a night because he spent 14 Euros on only 2 glasses of beer. We also went to a Pancake house(we saw them everywhere, apparently pancakes are very popular in Amsterdam) and I decided to get a pancake since I had not had one since being in the USA, when my pancake came out it was as thin as a piece of paper and had nothing on it, I laughed because they charged me 4.25 Euros...approx $5.50!!! So I basically ate it like a tortilla. Another funny food thing was the coffee portions, all Eric wanted was a normal sized coffee and they would bring him a tea set sized cup of coffee that would be gone in 3 seconds, and charged 2.25 Euros for it. Overall Amsterdam was a cool city, but I would never feel the need to return. Oh and we also did a Heineken Brewery Tour which was actually really fun, but if any of you decide to go to Amsterdam ever, go when it is warm because I froze my butt off the entire time, partly because I only had a thin jacket and was sick the whole time.
The next week was Thanksgiving which was really fun because my program hosted a Thanksgiving Potluck at my apartment complex, everyone brought some homemade Thankgiving food, I was really happy I didn't have to miss out on that Food Eating Marathon Holiday called Thanksgiving! It was funny what some people brought, a girl Heidi in my program brought a pumpkin pie that was totally homemade from an actual pumpkin because Germans have never heard of pumpkin pie, nonetheless have canned pumpkin pie filling. I got a huge piece but I was disappointed by the result, it tasted like black licorice, but I definitely give an A for effort because that would have been hard to make. I had so much food that night, when I got up from the table I couldn't even stand up straight because my stomach was so full, I had to hunch over all way home.
Pictures below... (My table at the Thanksgiving potluck, mmmm delicious!) (The table full of desserts and food!) (My roommate Joanna, Shane, Me and Kelly eating our Thanksgiving dinner in GERMANY!) (Ulli, my program director, serving me some Turkey...yumm! )
We also had a Thanksgiving dinner at my apartment for my German roommates. My roommate Joanna basically planned everything, it was so delicious. We made for them chicken, corn, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing, carrots with brown sugar, rolls, jello salad, and a real pumpkin pie. It was so good, and the Germans were obsessed with the pumpkin pie because they had never tasted anything like it before, so I had my mom send me some more pumpkin pie filling so they can make it for their families on Christmas! They were also really confused with the cranberry sauce and jello salad because they have nothing like it here. It was a really fun night with all of my roommates.
Right now my mom and Dan are here and we have already gone to Paris and they went to Heidelberg and Mannheim to visit Eric. They are in Freiburg visiting me now. That blog is soon to come! Next week! Hope all is well at home. Everything is flying by so fast here, and it's amazing that it is already December! I miss you and Love you all! Happy Holidays!!!
Auf Wiedersehen!
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